The story
Founded by Heinrich Koppers in 1988, in Chicago.1
In 1912 immigrant German engineer Heinrich Koppers founded Koppers Company in Chicago, Illinois. In 1915 the organization moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company founder's interest in the company was bought out by Pittsburgh financier Andrew Mellon, who became a large shareholder. The landmark Koppers Building in downtown Pittsburgh opened in 1929.
In 1943, Koppers, at the US government's behest, built a factory in Kobuta, Pennsylvania on the Ohio River downriver from Beaver, to manufacture styrene-butadiene monomer, a building block used to make a form of synthetic rubber for the World War II defense effort.
In 1951, at Port Arthur, Texas, the company built a plant to manufacture ethylbenzene, using as raw materials ethylene from the nearby Gulf Oil refinery, and benzene, which was a byproduct of the company's coke ovens in Pennsylvania, which was shipped to Texas by barge. The ethylbenzene produced there was then shipped by barge back to the Kobuta plant where it was converted to styrene monomer, and then polymerized to make expandable polystyrene. In the early 1950s, the company purchased a license to manufacture polyethylene at its Port Arthur plant. These chemical operations later were the basis for forming a new corporate entity with Sinclair Oil Corporation to form the Sinclair-Koppers Company in 1965.
In the 1960s, Koppers opened a Noise Control division and manufactured prefabricated sound traps.
In 2001, the company had to close a wood treatment plant in Oroville, California due to contamination of the 205 acre facility and the surrounding area. Chemicals like PCP and chromium were found to have been leaked into the local drinking water supply.
In August 2023, the company amounted that they would invest $17 Million USD to establish new manufacturing facility in Louisiana.
From Wikipedia’s article on Koppers, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6